[Mailman-Users] Keeping quoted digests off the list

[JC Dill]

One of my majordomo lists also has a digest option.  I have the following 
taboo header settings in the majordomo config file for that list:

         # taboo_headers        [regexp_array] (undef) <resend>
         # If any of the headers matches one of these regexps, then the
         # message will be bounced for review.
taboo_headers       <<  END
/^Content-Type:.*multipart.*/i
/^Content-Type:.*html.*/i
/^Subject:.*listname-digest.*/i
END

This very effectively stops someone from clicking "reply" to their copy of 
the digest, quoting the whole thing, adding whatever they add, and sending 
the whole thing off for distribution to the whole list.  Before their post 
is redistributed to the list, they must change the subject line, and if 
they remember to change the subject line my experience is that they will 
also remember to quote only the part that needs quoting, and to send their 
reply to the right address, etc.  Bingo, no more entire digests being 
quoted and sent back out to all the list subscribers.

(Also, no HTML or attachments will be allowed either, per the content-type 
filters, but that's a topic for another post.)

If desired, one can also add a taboo_body setting and match for the digest 
header text that also should never be quoted back in a properly trimmed 
reply (see example below).  That would catch the rare case (which hasn't 
occurred on my list yet, in over two years that I've been managing the 
list, with hundreds of subscribers and hundreds of posts a month) where the 
subject was changed, but the digest body was not properly trimmed when quoted.

Yes, this sort of content filtering causes occasional posts that were 
intended to be sent to the list to go to the moderator for approval, and 
delays their distribution to the list.  But all of those posts were sent in 
violation of the list rules (one of which is "change the subject line in 
your reply to the list, to the subject of the post in the digest you are 
replying to).  My position is that when a subscriber doesn't follow the 
list submission rules, (as outlined at the top of every digest they 
receive, in the fronter material for digests on my lists), they shouldn't 
complain that their post didn't immediately get redistributed to the list.

So...

Question #1

Is this possible with mailman?  Before I move my majordomo list to a new 
server with new mailing list software (mailman is the software I'm 
considering, obviously), it is a requirement that I can configure that 
software to do the same things I can currently easily do with majordomo.  I 
don't want to waste my time trying to futz around with installing and 
configuring mailman before I learn that it won't let me do some of the 
critical things I need it to do.

Question #2

(wait for it...)  If it's possible with mailman, can it please be done to 
THIS LIST?

<observation>
You would think that someone who writes mailing list software would want to 
eagerly demonstrate how many things their software can easily do.  One 
effective way would be to configure their software to do those very things 
on their own lists....
</observation>

jc




On 09:59 AM 3/29/01, lcarter1 at cwctv.net wrote:
>From: <lcarter1 at cwctv.net>
>To: mailman-users at python.org
>Subject: [Mailman-Users] RE:Mailman-Users digest, Vol 1 #1110 - 9 msgs
>Sender: mailman-users-admin at python.org
>Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 18:59:25 +0100

>unsubscribe

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